Post by iainbhx on Oct 18, 2020 18:17:19 GMT
Wolverhampton North East is a 1950 creation although its current form minus the City Centre and adding in Wednesfield dates from 1974, there have been small changes since then but it has stayed roughly the same. It is currently made up of seven Wolverhampton MBC wards - Bushbury North, Bushbury South and Low Hill, Fallings Park, Heath Town, Oxley, Wednesfield North, and Wednesfield South. All are essentially working class wards, although most have elements of middle class housing and in several of the wards, brownfield development is increasing the numbers of lower middle-class houses particularly in Oxley and Bushbury. There are large council estates in the area, although many of the better houses were RTBed many years ago. Heath Town is dominated by its two estate of grim high rises and has a much higher number of social homes for that reason. As with nearly all of Wolverhampton there is a substantial Asian minority, although in this seat Sikhs clearly dominate and in Heath Town and Fallings Park is the home of much of Wolverhampton's black minority. The old industrial sites of Goodyear and Chubb are largely gone, the hospital is the largest employer (I nearly ended up starting my career there), followed by the council, but there are substantial new opportunities opening up in the Science Park, on old industrial land in Bushbury North and other new retail and industrial areas. Wednesfield, which until 1966 was its own UDC still has a different feel to Wolverhampton, but not as much as say Bilston. I struggle to think of a good pub, but I really haven't been here much for the last 20 years, there used to be family friends in Fordhouses but they joined the many who have fled to Perton over the years in the early 2000's.
Politically, it should be safe Labour, but this is Enoch land and throughout the Thatcher years there were a number of close results. Renée Short might have clashed with Enoch, but she was bloody glad of his support in 1974. Like most Wolvo NE MP's except Ken Purchase, she was not loved, but was seen as doing a good job. She was perpetually disappointed at not having been appointed to Government in 1974 and was said to have stood down in 1987 because she feared she would lose. I personally believe she'd have hung on. However, she was replaced by the very vapid Maureen Hicks, whose anodyne column blighted the Suppress and Slur Express and Star for her tenure, where she talked rather a lot about how nice Stratford upon Avon was and rather less about her constituency, she never really made the transition from being a Stratford councillor. It was no surprise that at his second attempt, Ken Purchase who was local to his core bounced her out by nearly 4,000. Ken was a very good fit for the constituency being a local lad, who had been on the shop floor but had bettered himself which goes down very well in the Black Country. He was succeeded by Emma Reynolds, who had some claims to locality, but was really a Shifnal lass and whilst the denizens of Bushbury might wish to ascend to Shifnal one day, they are more dubious about those who originate from there. The majority dropped, but she was lucky in 2015 and 2017 to have had candidates who were not really the best on offer. Jane Stevenson was a much better prospect for the seat and may be a little more difficult to dislodge than the average.
Politically, it should be safe Labour, but this is Enoch land and throughout the Thatcher years there were a number of close results. Renée Short might have clashed with Enoch, but she was bloody glad of his support in 1974. Like most Wolvo NE MP's except Ken Purchase, she was not loved, but was seen as doing a good job. She was perpetually disappointed at not having been appointed to Government in 1974 and was said to have stood down in 1987 because she feared she would lose. I personally believe she'd have hung on. However, she was replaced by the very vapid Maureen Hicks, whose anodyne column blighted the
